Australia: Jedis Up, Scientologists Down

ABC.net.au’s Steve Cannane is full of good points, the lateline journo often hits sh_t right on the head. Cannane was the founding pesenter of JJJ’s current affairs program HACK, he’s a Walkley winner and a keen follower of most things dubious. In his latest Lateline report Mr Cannane muses over the folly of religion.

Scientology describes itself as the world’s fastest growing religion, but in Australia it is going backwards. Figures from the Australian Census show that in 2011, just 2,163 Australians called themselves Scientologists, a decrease of 13.7 per cent from the 2006 census. While Scientology is going backwards, other minor religions have registered increases.

The number of Pantheists went up by 35 per cent, while the Rastafarian movement increased by 30 per cent. Australians who describe themselves as Jedis now number over 65,000, over 30 times higher than Scientology’s figures. Wiccans, who dabble in witchcraft, have topped 8,000 :: Read Mr Cannane’s Full Article at ABC or Check the Video »»»»

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China's First Female Astronaut Back Safe

China’s Shenzhou 9 spacecraft has returned to Earth, ending a mission that put the country’s first woman in space and completed a manned docking test critical to its goal of building a space station by 2020.

The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and touched down shortly after 10:00am in China’s north-west Inner Mongolia, with its three-person crew, including female astronaut Liu Wang.

Beijing has hailed the nearly two-week mission as a technical breakthrough for the country’s growing space program.

The launch and docking exercises with the experimental Tiangong 1 space lab module were carried live on state television.

China is far from catching up with the established space superpowers, the United States and Russia, but the Shenzhou 9 marked China’s fourth manned space mission since 2003, and comes as budget restraints and shifting priorities have held back US manned space launches :: Read the full article »»»»

Katie Holmes Files For Divorce From The TomKat

Reuters is reporting that Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from her superstar husband Tom Cruise, ending a six-year marriage that produced one daughter and captivated celebrity watchers worldwide.

Holmes filed papers in New York City on Thursday, citing irreconcilable differences and seeking sole custody of the couple’s six-year-old daughter Suri in a move that came “out of the blue” for the Mission Impossible actor, said one source with knowledge of the situation.

The source said Cruise is out of the country filming a movie in Iceland and the filing came as a surprise.

The actor’s spokeswoman issued a brief statement, saying: “Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy to work this out.” No further comment was made :: Read the full article »»»»

Three Decades of Minitel, French Proto Internet Dead

More than three decades after it’s 1978 launched, Minitel, a French forerunner to the internet we know and love today – at its height was installed in 9 million French homes – will shut down for good tomorrow.

Once at the cutting edge of technology, the Minitel allowed users in France to check the news, search phone directories, buy train and plane tickets, make restaurant reservations and even take part in online sex chats long before similar services existed elsewhere.

The advent of the internet made the Minitel’s dial-up connection and black-and-white screen obsolete, despite some pretty vocal protests, Minitel’s operator France Telecom-Orange has decided to finally pull the plug.

Developed by France Telecom in the 1970s and freely distributed, the Minitel reached its height in the early 1990s, with 26,000 services available and annual revenues of about a billion euros, about $AU1.2 billion.

Today only about 400,000 terminals are still in use, many of its services – including booking Air France and railway tickets – have been discontinued and in 2010 the system brought in only 30 million euros in revenues. With 85 per cent of those revenues going to service providers, France Telecom has decided the cost of maintaining the network is no longer financially viable  :: Read the full article »»»»

Saudi Arabia Will Send Female Athlete/s To London Olympics

Saudi Arabia, al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah, the home of Mecca, the Kingdom which on September 25, 2011 finally announced that women might gain the right to vote, to stand in local elections, join the advisory Shura council.

Al Saud, where any public display of femininity is outlawed, where females are forbidden from driving motor vehicles and where sports events for women are banned, will now apparently allow females to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time.

The BBC quoted the Saudi embassy in London as saying its Olympic committee will “oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify”.

The issue of women in sport remains extremely sensitive in the ultra-conservative Muslim state, where  authorities shut down private gyms for women in 2010.

Equestrian contestant Dalma Malhas is likely to be the country’s only female athlete to qualify for this summer’s Games in London which get underway on July 27. Malhas, born in the United States, won a bronze medal at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics without having been nominated by her country, following an invitation from the International Olympic Committee :: Read the full article »»»»